Days of Christmas Repast

Merry musings on historical holiday menus.

What’s Cooking
By Robrt Pela

No matter how you slice it, Christmas food is fat city, fueled with enough sugar to send an army of elves into shock. The consumption of hugely heavy foods is a Christmas tradition in most Christian countries, a fact that’s well-documented in fiction, poetry and song. In his poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” Clement Moore wrote of Santa Claus’s merry corpulence: “He had a broad face, and a little round belly/That shook, when he laughed, like a bowl full of jelly”—and it’s no wonder, considering how many Christmas recipes call for whole cream and butter. Charles Dickens wrote often of Christmas in his columns, stories, and novels; with Dickens, it was feast or famine—he was either starving his characters nearly to death (recall Oliver Twist’s endlessly whiny stomach) or gorging them with meals that would cause Jenny Craig to faint.

Who can forget, in A Christmas Carol, Mrs. Cratchit’s anguish over the serving of figgy pudding? Certainly not Mr. Cratchit, who, in a fictional age when such displays were still seemly, regarded the Christmas pudding as “the greatest success achieved by Mrs. Cratchit since their marriage.” (Today, this attitude would have landed Mr. Cratchit on an episode of The Tyra Banks Show entitled “Men Who Love Pudding Too Much and the Women Who Marry Them.”)

Christmas food is also celebrated in song. Figgy pudding is demanded rather strenuously in an Old English number that’s known here as “We Wish You a Merry Christmas,” and Mel Torme’s standard “The Christmas Song” offers “chestnuts roasting on an open fire” as a serving suggestion. Likewise, many of the brood of birds delivered by “my true love” in “The Twelve Days of Christmas” are edible, although they would have first to be plucked and roasted, and who has a recipe for French hen?

We don’t. And so we’re offering an appetizing Christmas morning buffet menu instead. Much of this holiday repast can be prepared ahead of time during the hectic holiday season, and the dishes here—particularly the vegetable frittata and red and green salad—can be served year-round. More good news: our alcohol-free eggnog won’t impair your ability to remove Christmas ribbon.

Whether feasting on these dishes or your family’s traditional Christmas morning meal, we hope that you end up, as Dickens wrote, “steeped in sage and onion to the eyebrows!” 

Recipes

Alcohol-Free Egg Nog
Makes 24 servings

• 2 dozen eggs, separated
• 2¼ cup sugar
• 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1½ cup heavy cream
• Ground nutmeg

1. Blend the egg yolks and sugar with an electric mixer on low speed until golden yellow. Add the vanilla extract a little at a time.
2. In a separate bowl, whip the cream until stiff; fold this into the egg yolk and vanilla mixture. In a third bowl, whip the egg whites until stiff and fold them into the egg mixture.
3. Serve with nutmeg sprinkled on top.

Vegetable Frittata
Serves eight

• 2 six-ounce jars marinated artichoke hearts
• 2 medium red peppers, chopped
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 16 eggs
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon pepper
• 1 cup shredded Swiss cheese

1. In a skillet over medium heat, cook red peppers and onion in vegetable oil and marinade from artichokes, about 10 minutes. Stir in artichoke hearts. Beat eggs; add salt, pepper, and half of cheese. Pour egg mixture over vegetables; cover and cook over medium-low heat until eggs are set, about ten minutes.
2. Broil frittata in oven until top is golden brown; sprinkle with remaining cheese. Serve hot or cold.

Red and Green Salad
Serves eight

• 2 large pomegranates
• 2 bunches spinach
• 10 kiwi, peeled and sliced
• 2/3 cup red wine vinegar

1. Remove the pomegranate seeds and juice; set aside juice. Combine seeds with cleaned, shredded spinach leaves and sliced kiwi.
2. Mix vinegar with pomegranate juice; pour over spinach and fruit just before serving.

Figgy Pudding
Serves eight

• 1 stick butter
• 1 cup molasses
• 2 eggs
• 1 pound dried, chopped figs
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2/3 cup chopped walnuts
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
• 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg

1. Preheat oven to 325°F. Cream the butter; beat in molasses and eggs. Add the figs, buttermilk, walnuts and lemon peel.
2. Sift together dry ingredients; add to fig mixture. Bake pudding for one hour in a greased, floured eight-inch casserole. Pudding is done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.